


And What Now

by Snacktivist



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Short & Sweet, They broke my heart so I fixed it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 05:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19805797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snacktivist/pseuds/Snacktivist
Summary: In Charlie’s hand, there was a time courier. Zari said her name, raising her voice in an inquiry.“Charlie?”Charlie tilted her head to the side and breathed out. “Come with me,” she only said.An alternative ending to the season 4 finale where Zari doesn't disappear and Zarlie might happen.





	And What Now

Zari was pacing back and forth in the library. The fast pace of her footsteps alternated with moments of silence when she was sitting on a chair, staring at the computer screen, barely breathing and with her heart racing, waiting for everything to be over. The waiting was the worst part. She knew she was supposed to be there with her family, helping them – she had powers they could use, she had her totem. Sara almost died just now. Maybe Zari could’ve prevented that – well, technically, she did, the... baby version of her, that is. Kid Z.

Her core shivered.

That kid Z that she could barely recognise anymore, that kid whose memories were intertwining with hers, making everything blurry. Z didn’t really have friends when she was a kid, this child, though, she did... And she has a family that she will grow up with. Parents she will be taking care of as they’re growing old. Maybe she’ll even have a husband. A boyfriend first. One who’s not Nate. And have a family with him. Kids. Not the family she has now, not the crazy band of superheroes on a time ship she calls home. That will not have happened soon. She inhaled air into her lungs through her nose and rested her head in her hands. She will remember them, because she was safe in the temporal zone, but will they remember her? Her family will be alive and safe and hopefully so, so happy, but... her family.

“Z?” A familiar voice interrupted her train of thought.

She raised her head again to see Charlie standing in the doorway; her hair swept to the side over her shoulder, her clothes punk, her expression... Uncertain. She watched her shift her weight from one foot to the other and bite her lip. The lack of mischief in her eyes made Zari’s stomach turn.

In Charlie’s hand, there was a time courier. Zari said her name, raising her voice in an inquiry.

“Charlie?”

Charlie tilted her head to the side and breathed out. “Come with me,” she only said.

Zari, in her surprise, failed to react immediately, so Charlie crossed the room over to her and grabbed her by the arm. Zari looked at her, then turned her head to look at the computer screen again, to see what’s happening, but Charlie was faster. She pulled her closer to her and opened a portal.

Wait, what?

That wasn’t a portal.

No, it was a portal, just-

“What’s going on?”

Charlie shook her head, then looked into Zari’s eyes and sighed. “There’s no time explain, you have to trust me, just come with me.”

Zari took a breath to give her a verbal answer, but before she spoke, she tried looking at the computer screen again – to find out what’s going on with the team. She needed to know that, she needed to check. But Charlie harshly pulled on her arm, which made Zari quickly turned her head back before she saw anything.

“Forget about that, they’re alright, I promise, just come with me.”

“What’s going on?”

“There’s no time now, I’ll explain later!” Charlie’s voice became more intense as she clenched her fists, which Zari felt in the grasp she had of her arm.

“Charlie, what the hell?!”

Charlie opened her mouth and for a second seemed truly desperate, and Zari decided not to argue with her any more. Instead, she looked at the foreign portal opened in their library. It was blue and strangely round. Nothing Zari was familiar with from using the Time Bureau’s equipment. She looked at Charlie’s other hand again and saw that the time courier she was holding might not have been from Time Bureau either. She raised her gaze to look at Charlie’s face, questions in her eyes.

Charlie reciprocated the gaze, loosened her grip, eyes unflinching. Then she spoke. “Do you trust me?”

And Zari’s lips parted, she breathed out softly before she slowly nodded. “I do.”

After that Charlie didn’t hesitate; she took a step back and pulled Zari through the unfamiliarly round portal and on to a busy street. Before Zari had the time to look around, the portal closed, and a man was swearing at her. When she looked at him, she concluded his anger was caused by the coffee spilled all over his shirt. Her fault? She did just bump into something. She turned to look at Charlie, who was standing at her side, and found her turning around as she was probably trying to figure out where they were. She heard cars and people talking and people kept walking by and the man? When she looked at where he had been standing, he was already gone but where was the team and where were they? Charlie didn’t seem shocked; her expression has barely changed.

Suddenly a loud noise interrupted her thoughts, she quickly turned and realised a yellow cab was honking at her. When she looked down, she saw her feet on the road, no longer on the pavement. She didn’t realise she moved, and almost just got run over. Charlie noticed too and pulled her back.

“Pay attention, Z!”

Zari just shook her head, more confused than she was a minute ago. “What’s happening?”

Charlie took a deep breath and then smiled. “We’re in New York. Where the monsters have a ball.”

Zari nodded, as if that explained any of the questions she had. Well, it explained where they were, but that was not exactly the pressing issue here.

Charlie understood and her smile disappeared. “I’ll explain, but let’s get out of here first.”

They were walking for what was way too long one way or another and Zari asked for an explanation a few more times only to have Charlie reassure her again and again. When she pressed on, Charlie reminded her she promised to trust her, and that shut her up. Then, after a while, they got to what Zari guessed must have been Central Park, considering the amount of greenery on one side and high rise buildings on the other.

They walked between the lawns and Charlie spoke just as Zari was taking a breath to ask her to.

“When I tell you what happened, you have to promise not to freak out, Z.”

Zari quickly turned her head towards her and was immediately very ready to freak out.

“Please,” Charlie added softly.

And Zari let out a breath, nodded, and shifted her gaze to her moving feet.

It took Charlie a few more seconds of pressuring herself before she was able to speak, but finally she did. “Something happened in Hey World, and you came over because you saw it... But you would’ve disappeared, Z.”

Zari’s forehead wrinkled, but she let Charlie continue.

“So, I came back to get you out of there. The team agreed!” She added quickly.

“You travelled back in time?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened? What did I see?”

Charlie pursed her lips, then took a deep breath. “It was Nate. He died.”

And Zari halted. Her feet stopped moving over the ground and it felt as if her heart ceased beating too.

“He’s okay now!”

Zari slowly lifted her head, as if in a trance, stunned and unable to interrupt Charlie.

“We brought him back with singing, it was really weird, but the point is he’s okay now. And I came back to get you, before you... you know.”

Zari did not know.

“You were there for Nate, but it wasn’t safe for you, so Sara asked me to prevent you from going there by...” She looked around and waved her arms, “This.”

Zari shook her head in confusion. “How does being in New York help? What year is it?”

“It’s 2019, I think, it should be. But it’s another Earth.”

Zari frowned, looked up at the sky, thought for a second. “A parallel universe?”

“Yeah.”

“How...?”

“I asked the bloke Cisco for plans for the thingy and Gideon fabricated it. Then I went back in time again to get you.”

Zari slowly resumed walking and Charlie joined her. “So, we’re in a parallel universe New York, Nate died but is alive now again, you’re with me, but... the rest of the team?”

“They’re okay. I think. When I left everything was pretty much over.”

After Charlie said that, they both reverted back to silence for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the city and their own footsteps.

Later they crossed over to the lawn, found a comfortably looking patch of grass and sat down. Zari nervously pulled on the green blades.

“So the only reason I’m still here is that... you showed up and dragged me into an alternate reality.”

Charlie didn’t answer.

“The team forgot me then.”

Again, no answer.

“But the plan worked, right?”

Charlie reassured her with a nod and a faint smile.

“So, what happens now?”

Her answer was a shrug.

“You didn’t think it through this far, did you?”

“No one did.”

“Of course,” Zari sighed.

“Does it matter? We’ll figure it out.”

This time it was Zari who gave no answer and Charlie smiled, reached out, and gently bumped into Zari’s shoulder with her fist. “It’s alright. I’m glad you’re still here, Z.” The smile that brightened up her face was almost, almost infectious. “With your memories intact and all.”

Zari only nodded and lowered her gaze to the few blades of grass she mindlessly ripped out of the ground. She opened her fist and let them fall down.

Charlie, on the other hand, she decided to let her be, put her hands behind her head and lied down. The sky above their heads was blue, a few fluffy white clouds here and there, sun halfway to the horizon. She had no idea what was going to happen now, but did she ever?

Zari’s clothes rustled as she switched the position she was in to sit on one of her feet and moved the other knee close to her chin. The movement made Charlie look over at her. This was possibly harder on Zari than it was on her, since Charlie didn’t have much to leave besides the team when she chose to run away to a parallel universe. And Charlie was also the one who could go back without consequences. She turned her head to look at the little portal toy lying by her side. No consequences for her but forgetting Zari.

Several minutes passed before Zari was brave enough to speak again.

“When are you going back?”

Charlie lifted herself on her elbows. “You’re already thinking of getting rid of me?”

That answer made Zari chuckle.

And Charlie smiled. “I might not be going back, really.”

“No?”

“Maybe I want to make trouble here. Never been to a parallel universe before.”

“Only another dimension. I’m sure that’s boring compared to another Earth.”

This time it was Charlie who laughed, much more loudly than Zari before her, and with her eyes too. “Yeah, it was rubbish.”

Zari was looking at her smiling for a moment, before she sighed and changed the topic. “Is everyone really okay?”

“I think so. Nate woke up just as I was leaving. And Neron was fucked. Everyone was just worried about you and Nate. And you’re both alright now, so...”

The bittersweet smile on Zari’s lips was hard to miss. “Aren’t we just delaying the inevitable?”

“What do you mean?”

“My life is on our Earth, that’s gone one way or another. I don’t know this world, don’t know who I am here. If I exist at all. And you have to go back to the team, they need you. Sara said she wouldn’t lose another Legend and this way she lost two.”

Charlie couldn’t help but smile when Zari called her a Legend, despite the rest of what was said. “I think they’ll survive for a bit.”

“For a bit?”

“Yeah,” she nodded without losing her smile. “As long a bit we want. There’s no rush.”

The corners of Zari’s mouth lifted and her eyes lit up gently. She said nothing but watched Charlie get up and dust off her clothes.

“Now, come on, Z! I’ve got some change, the weather’s great, let’s go get ice cream.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and as usual please tell me what you liked/didn't like in the comments if you feel like it :)


End file.
